This invention relates generally to embossing apparatus, and more particularly to power embossing apparatus which is operated by a drive motor.
Embossing apparatus is well-known for the purpose of placing an embossed seal on the surface of sheet materials such as legal documents or other paper documents. The seal can take the form of a notary public seal, a state seal, or a corporate seal depending on the particular purpose of use. When placing an embossed seal on documents, a hand-operated device can be used when only a limited number of embossed seals are desired. However, when embossing large numbers of documents, such as is common practice in state and federal government offices, the hand embossing operation becomes time-consuming and tedious.
To overcome the drudgery of such embossing operations, power embossing apparatus have been developed. However, prior art power embossing apparatus are generally deficient in that they can properly emboss only a limited number of sheets of paper at a given time because of the operating nature of the embossing dies. These prior art apparatus generally apply greater embossing pressure at one periphery of the die and less embossing pressure at the other periphery of the die. Therefore, when varing the thickness of the material therebetween, either by thicker material or by a plurality of sheets, the quality of the embossed seal applied to the sheet material is somewhat reduced. One example of a prior art power embosser is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,033,106, however upon comparison of the present invention to that embosser disclosed therein, it can be readily appreciated that a distinct advance has been effected. Not only is this prior art embosser subject to the above discussed disadvantages, but employs a relatively complex operating mechanism which requires that the drive motor be operating at all times when the machine is turned on. Not only is this device complex in construction but is expensive to manufacture and maintain in service. As will be apparent from the following description, the present invention provides more reliable, simpler and less costly apparatus, than that of said prior art patent.